The Commuter Rail Murder: Disincorporate Charlotte, Dissolve Mecklenburg County, Eliminate the District Court

Failed municipalities that allow violent criminals to roam free, and which quickly release those who do get arrested, have proven themselves incapable of self-rule. They need to have their charters revoked and be dissolved by their respective states.

Protecting law abiding citizens from cities and counties that have aligned with hardened criminals is emerging as a major civil rights issue in coming years. Citizens of red states which contain pro-crime blue cities have the power to dissolve those municipal entities that provide safe harbor to recidivist criminals. This is an idea that is gaining traction, and I am intentionally making a storyline I frequently return to.

The case of Iryna Zarutska, who was murdered on a Charlotte light rail train by a violent criminal with 14 previous arrests, including armed robbery, has outraged law abiding citizens nationwide. Charlotte’s mayor, Vi Lyles, meanwhile has sided with the murderer, making it clear that she thinks he’s the victim.

“Charlotte Mayor Vi Lyles ripped over woke response demanding ‘compassion’ for madman accused of slaughtering Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska” [NY Post – 9/08/2025]

She said mental health, like the schizophrenia Brown was diagnosed with, “needs to be treated with the same compassion, diligence and commitment as cancer and heart disease,” adding, “those who are unhoused are more frequently the victim of crimes and not the perpetrators.”

Mayor Lyles also made it clear that she remains committed to keeping violent predators out of jail and on the streets, stating “We will never arrest our way out of issues such as homelessness and mental health.”

That is both dishonest and not true. The murder was not committed due to homelessness, but more importantly, a disproportionate amount of felonies are committed by recidivist criminals. If they stay behind bars once arrested, then there would be no “repeat offenders.”

The mayor also sought to have the media embargo any video evidence of her sympathetic criminal committing murder against an unsuspecting woman.

Amidst all this uproar, Mayor Lyles is running for re-election, and she just prevailed in the Democrat primary a few days ago. A vote for Ms. Lyles is a vote for more random murders, but that is apparently what Democrats in Charlotte support. The state of North Carolina does not need to allow this to persist.

There is also the problem of pro-crime judges who simply release arrested criminals back out onto the streets. Ms. Zarutska’s murderer had just recently been released on a no-cash bail by a magistrate judge in Mecklenburg County. This pro-crime judge, Teresa Stokes, was appointed by county officials.

Many North Carolina Republican politicians are demanding the removal of Judge Stokes, which is well and good, but dissolving the county would eliminate the opportunity for such appointments altogether. So would dissolving the District Court she serves in. The state of North Carolina can do this, either legislatively or by amending its constitution.

In an era in which foundations and NGOs are behaving like Bond villains endeavoring to disrupt civilization, it should come as no surprise that Mecklenburg County has taken millions of dollars from the radical left wing MacArthur foundation for the purpose of emptying its jails.

“Charlotte Pocketed $3.3M From Left-Wing NGO To Empty Jails For 'Racial Equity'” [Zero Hedge – 9/09/2025]

But the failures don't stop with local leftist politicians and rogue progressive judges (or magistrate judges) who embrace woke and enabled criminal justice reform from hell. They extend much deeper - into the shadowy world of the dark-money-funded nonprofit industrial complex, which poured millions of dollars into Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, to push for "reducing the jail population."

At Twitter/X, Megan Basham brings the receipts, showing documentation of Mecklenburg County touting the $3.3 million it received from the MacArthur Foundation in service to a "Safety and Justice Challenge" to ”reduce the jail population.”

A county that embraces violent crime, supported by the MacArthur Foundation’s funding of decarceration, cannot be tolerated.

If a municipality decided to allow re-segregation under Jim Crow-style law enforcement, that would be vulgar and unacceptable. If a municipality failed to prosecute KKK lynchings, that would be unacceptable. The countenance of violent crime by Charlotte and Mecklenburg County officials is no different. Those municipalities have forfeited the right to self-rule, just like a county welcoming the KKK and allowing a re-introduction of Jim Crow would forfeit its right to self-governance.

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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